- Pronouns
- He/Him
Scarred and Blooded: Edda has both shed and drawn blood in battle, winning the renewed respect of her Clan.
Good for her.
Good for her.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
there was a rant from Boney at one point on how she acts like a cat.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
When Mathilde leaves her tower she tends to present belegar with the carcasses of warbosses or vampires. Just like a cat will sometimes leave mice bodies for their owners.
Also like a cat Mathilde will only reluctantly do what you tell her. The vast majority of time is spent on doing what she wants.
chocolote12
A Penguin Flailing Against The Keyboard Of Life.
We know that previously unknown story elements are in part decided by their rolls; if you roll well you're a threat, but if you roll badly you must be new, that sort of thing. It's there so that crits don't get treated as random flukes, but as things that the character can reasonably replicate, most of the time.
My current theory is that we've never really seen Kazador and Azul in action before; not like this, on a total war footing. Ergo, when he proceeded to knock it out of the park, he really knocked it out of the park; see the new description of the Azul Throng, and the new title he seems to have received (thunderhorn). Presumably we didn't do too badly ourselves, especially as the nominal head of this military expedition; we might not have gotten up to as much stabbing, but strategic coordination is also pretty good.
- Location
- Canada
Wouldn't have made a difference, artillery can't be part of an attack, they can only be used to set up defences, presumably the mixture of time sensitive deployment and underground tunnels means that moving artillery as part of an attack simply isn't feasible
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Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
That actually does make me feel a lot better. Facing an enemy artillery piece without one of our own wasn't because we made an oversight, it's just something that happened in war when assaulting an enemy defensive position under the constraints of time and underground fighting.
ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
Alright so I leave for work and come back to seeing everything in spoilers what has happened?
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Regarding our feline nature:
Quest
The Great One
- Location
- Everywhere
- Location
- USA
Pre-update hype and speculation based on Boney's edits to info threadmarks.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
We died
Or you could just read the spoilers. It may sound harsh but we can only speculate anyway, this is just pre-update spoiler editions
- Location
- Australia
Spoken queekish is very important. It allows you to interrogate prisoners and listen to what skaven are saying, both of which are useful. The skaven don't keep all of their important or relevant information in written documents.
- Location
- USA
Sure, it's important, but is it important enough to delay publishing written queekish? I'm not convinced about that.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I love you to Mr Beautiful Battleaxe Butterfly Bro.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
Written queekish can be used for interrogating the higher-ranking members. It's awkward, but as long as they're able to read and write it can work.
Thunderhorn probably means Kazador smashed that new lighting cannon we will be getting.
ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
Alright caught up this makes a lot more sense now.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Funny thing, its his last name and that part of his name has been there for several updates.
- Location
- Australia
All the skaven assaults that our discovery of the civil war triggered are done. There's no current need for either, so waiting until we have spoken queekish will only let us save AP. It's fine. There's a lot of things that we have to worry about going to slow with and this thankfully isn't one of them.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Not for the Karaz Ankor, which is as far as we know at constant war with the Skaven, when they're not particularly intrigue focused.
The Battle of the Caldera, Part 5 (2pm)
[*] Plan KISS 3
-[*] Scout 1: Continue Disrupting Communications
-[*] Scout 2: Assist in the Under-Caldera Attack
-[*] Scout 3: Monitor Under-Yar
-[*] Huzkul: Secure the cordon, ensuring it won't fall to orcs when the skaven line breaks.
-[*] Thorek + Anvil: Move to assist Huzkul.
-[*] Izor, Angrund, Besiegers: Advance into the Under-Caldera in a pincer from the Under-Citadel.
-[*] Azul, Mercenaries: Advance into the Under-Caldera in a pincer from Under-Karagril.
-[*] Mathilde: Command the Under-Caldera attack.
-[*] Scout 1: Continue Disrupting Communications
-[*] Scout 2: Assist in the Under-Caldera Attack
-[*] Scout 3: Monitor Under-Yar
-[*] Huzkul: Secure the cordon, ensuring it won't fall to orcs when the skaven line breaks.
-[*] Thorek + Anvil: Move to assist Huzkul.
-[*] Izor, Angrund, Besiegers: Advance into the Under-Caldera in a pincer from the Under-Citadel.
-[*] Azul, Mercenaries: Advance into the Under-Caldera in a pincer from Under-Karagril.
-[*] Mathilde: Command the Under-Caldera attack.
The more you stare at the map of the western half of the Karak, the more you understand how it fell in the first place. From the surface, Karak Eight Peaks was astoundingly defensible, the natural ring of mountains enhanced by structures like Morzund's Wall and the Sentinels and the Silver Tower, leaving the only entrances at the immensely fortified Gates. All that became useless in a single literally earth-shattering moment when their Underway transformed from a secure highway to link the Karaz Ankor to a brand new front against the greenskins, and just as they adapted to that new reality Skaven erupted from below. They faced a war without fronts, a war they couldn't fortify against, and every man, woman and child had to face a reality where they could come under attack at any moment. And that is the reality that every Dwarf in the Karaz Ankor has faced for thousands of years.
It is also the reality that you face, as you count and recount the staggering amount of new fronts each potential move would open up.
The simplest answer would be to pull back to most of the original positions and content yourself with the conquest of Kvinn-Wyr and the Under-Citadel, but leaving the Skaven be until a one-is-freedom single power rises and turns its attention away from internal politics would be a disaster, and even with a Waaagh less than a day away there's not likely to be a better opportunity for the conquest of at least some of the Karags. So you stop counting fronts, muster your determination, and start distributing orders once more. Clan Huzkul and Thorek to see to the Karak Drazh Underway, and all other below-ground forces to advance on the Caldera.
---
The advance on the Caldera is even more unopposed than the conquest of the Under-Citadel, as guard post after guard post dissolves away at the first sign of your vanguard to scamper back to the Trench, and as the forces from the north and the east converge on the Cavern of Stars you feel grimly certain that this isn't cowardice, it's a careful husbanding of forces to make a single choke-point as much of a nightmare to take as possible, and the reports from the Rangers confirm your suspicions soon after. The Cavern of Stars bristles with defences, from spears to jezzails to ratling guns and even a warp lightning cannon. You take a few minutes to exchange a flurry of messages with King Kazador, and then you give the orders that will consign many a soul to Morr and Gazul.
---
[Mathilde vs Unknown Skaven Commander, Eastern Defences: Martial, 32+23+5(Strategy: Skaven)=60 vs 45+15+10(Desperate)+10(Prepared)-10(Communications Cut)-10(Intimidated)-10(Completely Isolated)=50.]
If there's a good way to advance on a position like this, you don't see it, but you do your best to find the least bad. The eastern approach to the Underway is lit by massive floodlights, which you expected. You moved your force to the approach from Karag Mhonar through inconveniently narrow side-tunnels specifically because of this and other preparations. The speed with which the defending force transfers most of their defensive measures, including the lights, almost renders it pointless. But with the other pincer quickly approaching there's no time for any other clever moves, so you order the advance and twelve thousand men and Dwarves obey.
Cracks give a moment's warning before jezzail bullets are buzzing through the air, but those that fall are the minority compared to those that have the bullets ping off shields, the high-velocity warpstone rounds proving unable to overcome good, thick steel of the formerly Karak Izor Dwarves. But you know that's not the only extreme-range danger, and the sick sensation in your gut is only partly from the sickly magical energies you can feel gathering ahead. Malign light flickers and then lashes out, exploding into a cloud of blood and green mist as at least a score of Dwarves are vaporized. But the Dwarves of the Vaults are no strangers to Skaven technosorcery, and they grimly close ranks and continue the advance.
There's a distance where the velocity of a jezzail round will overcome even Dwarven steel, and you've done your best to estimate it. Through gaps in the lines humans march at double time, pavise shields before them, freshly reinforced with the strongest steel Karak Azul can provide. Perhaps having some premonition of the future, perhaps merely preferring a larger target, the jezzail rounds concentrate on them only to ricochet off. They reach their preferred range and with a percussive chorus, the shields slam down upon stone, and then a second chorus sounds as cunning Tilean devices drive steel rods into the stone below. One of them is unfortunate enough to catch a jezzail bullet in the fraction of their head that is visible over the top of the shield, but a second shot of warp lightning grounds harmlessly against a stone wall instead of interfering with them, and a moment later Braganza's Besiegers demonstrate just how they got their name. Any unit of crossbowmen can pull their weight when defending a fortified position, but it takes something special for one to make a name assaulting them, and with utter discipline the crossbowmen begin to fire, not as a volley but as a constant rhythmic pattern to prevent any wasted shots on already-doomed targets. Jezzail snipers scream and gurgle, Fangleaders foolish enough to wear the plumes of their rank topple over, and with a shattering of glass the Underway is plunged back into darkness. The Dwarves march on.
Ratling guns fire into the darkness, and though plenty of bullets ping off shields or walls or fly over the heads of the Dwarves, cries and screams from the darkness prove that some are getting through. But every third rank has a crossbow rather than an axe or hammer in their off-hand, and at a shouted order a volley of bolts fly out of the darkness and scythe through the increasingly nervous ranks of the Skaven defenders, and between the volleys and the sniping from the Besiegers every rat that takes control of a ratling gun perishes soon after. You brace yourself once more as Dhar gathers, but the nature of the energy shows itself once more as it rebels against even the blackest of deeds, and Skaven shrieks ring out as warp lightning arcs through those trying to tend to the cannon. The torches and lights of the defended position begin to glint off shields and axes as the Dwarves continue to approach.
The front rank of the defenders are Stormvermin, the black-furred elite soldiers of the Skaven armies, and unlike the Clanrats behind them they remain solely focused on the task at hand, teeth bared and halberds levelled at the approaching Dwarves. They know they are the elite and the Dwarves approaching are the closest thing the Dwarves have to a militia, and they feel eagerness, not fear, at the impending violence. What better boast than to have tasted Dwarf-flesh claimed in battle? But they don't realize that you're just as aware of the discrepancy as they are. Instead of accelerating to a charge as they near the defences, they open ranks, and from where they were sheltered by the shields and bodies of the Karak Izor Dwarves, Clan Angrund emerges at a run. A rainbow of light from ten thousand runes or more activating in an instant causes the Skaven to flinch back for just a second, and it's at that second that Clan Angrund strikes. More than anyone in the hold they have felt the presence of Skaven neighbours as a constant aggravation, and they don't vent that outrage now; they harness it to fuel the flurry of runic violence that is unleashed upon the Skaven lines, tearing through dozens of black-furred elites in seconds.
It would still be possible here for the Skaven to recover from the initial clash, to throw reserves in to plug the gap in their line, for the warp lightning cannon to be hastily repaired and the ratling guns crewed once more and turn back the tide...
[King Kazador vs Unknown Skaven Commander, Northern Defences: Martial, 60+15+20(Thunderhorn)+10(Master Rune of Dismay)=105 vs 68+15+10(Desperate)-10(Communications Cut)-10(Intimidated)-10(Completely Isolated)=63.]
But an instant later that possibility is gone, as a sound you feel before you hear rumbles through the Underway, and the subtle Runic magics interwoven in the sound remain inert as they flow through you. The sound means torment to every greenskin unfortunate enough to call the mountains near Karak Azul home, and though the Skaven have not encountered it before, the magic activates inside them to ensure they instantly understand what it means for them. From the north a massive wall of crossbow quarrels hits the few defenders still facing away from you, and it is a wall instead of any mere volley, as decades of practice have given the Throng of Karak Azul the ability to stagger their firing so that the crossbow bolts of the rearmost rank arrives at the same time as that of the foremost. Seconds later a wall of shields bowls over the remaining defenders, and the second rank dispatch any still moving after the impact and trampling of the first. And trailing behind in an effort to show willing are the mercenaries from the Border Princes, weapons unbloodied but enthusiasm undimmed.
Though the Skaven were visibly scared before, their body language transforms in an instant to outright terror, as undetectable to Dwarf and man alike the musk of fear overpowers the musk of battle and every Skaven knows in a second that their only hope for survival is to flee. Any less disciplined force would have been caught off-guard by a pitched battle transforming to a rout in a single second, but the forces that oppose them are not short of discipline, nor of crossbows, and quarrels pursue the fleeing defenders as determinedly as any cavalry, scything down rank after rank. Then only the dead and wounded remain.
The Cavern of Stars is quite different from how you remember it from your infiltrations, awash with blood and viscera and dropped weapons, but the hole into the Trench is unchanged. Rickety cranes ring the shaft, as does a sloped walkway that groans alarmingly under the slightest weight. You and King Kazador share a nod of work well done as you both peer down into that gateway to the final bolt-hole of Clan Mors, half an ear turned to the reports coming in from your scouts. Clan Mors' forces in Karag Yar remain blissfully unaware of your actions, and now will remain so until they return here in person and discover matters for themselves, but from the report of the Rangers that won't be any time soon. It seems that Eshin recovered enough to set things near-equal, but then a set of near-simultaneous blunders put Mors and Eshin on the back foot at the same time and the two sides simultaneously routed, and then both realized that the other had run and thought they were about to miss out on victory and turned around once more. Now they're locked in a completely disorderly mess of a battle through the entirety of Under-Karag Yar and some of the mountain above too, and the only way to disengage anything but the smallest fraction of either force is the complete extermination of the enemy. The Rangers estimate that both are no better than half strength, and rapidly dropping as exhaustion and the Black Hunger take their toll.
So you estimate you've got at least another two hours until any possible Clan Mors response, and it would be heavily mauled. Probably enough time to clear out the Trenches. But though you estimate about half the defenders perished up here, another half are down there, and though this battle played to the cultivated strengths of Clan Mors, the one down there in a maze of dark, cramped tunnels will play to the natural strengths of the Skaven. But this is a battle the Dwarves have become quite experienced at in their own right. And while you're down there, things up above will still be playing out. Now that you've got a moment of peace to pay attention, you realize that from the direction of the Underway path to Karag Zilfin, you can feel the faintest echoes of occasional bursts of Hysh. The dragon, you presume. And from the direction of Karag Rhyn, the familiar tang of a Waaagh engaged in battle. From the Broken Toof fighting the Crooked Moon? From either or both fighting an invasion of Trolls? From something else entirely?
Too many questions, not enough answers. But you know that waiting for all the answers means the answer you end up getting is 'you lost the war'.
---
Current Forces:
Clan Angrund: 995/1,000. Each armed and armoured in runic equipment from the Good Old Days.
Karak Izor immigrants: 9,100/10,000. Well armed and experienced. Mix of ranged and melee.
Braganza's Besiegers: 980/1,000. Highly skilled, heavily armoured pavise crossbowmen on an extended contract.
Throng of Karak Azul: 9,900/10,000. Well equipped, highly experienced, each has at least a melee weapon, a shield, and a crossbow.
Border Prince mercenaries: 2,850/3,000. Many have stuck around to spend their earnings, hope for future work, and enjoy the feeling of safety.
Approach:
[ ] APPROACH: Ironhammer
Send in Clan Angrund, as the tip of the spear.
[ ] APPROACH: Thunderhorn
Let the Throng of Karak Azul lead the way.
[ ] APPROACH: Grimbrow
Send in Princess Edda's forces. What they lack in flashiness they make up for in discipline and tenacity.
[ ] APPROACH: Nope.
Bugger this for a game of soldiers. Put up a cordon and let them rot down there.
Manling involvement:
[ ] MANLING: Besieger Support
There's unlikely to be many clear sight-lines down there, but they'd certainly be able to take and hold chokepoints.
[ ] MANLING: Mercenary support
As ruthless as it sounds, humans dying instead of Dwarves is why they are here.
[ ] MANLING: Both
Why are they being paid if they're not fighting? Send both down into the tunnels.
[ ] MANLING: Neither
This is a battle men are not suited for.
Leadership:
[ ] LEAD: Lead from the Front
This will have you fighting alongside the leader of the forces chosen in the Approach: the Thane of Clan Angrund, King Kazador, or Princess Edda.
[ ] LEAD: Central Command
Try to influence the battle however you can from the centre.
[ ] LEAD: Sow Terror
This is the battle you were born for. Leave command in King Kazador's capable hands, become one with the darkness, and teach the Skaven the meaning of terror.
Rangers can investigate three locations at a time. Scouting can be done alongside an attack to scout, skirmish, and prevent ambushes, or can be done to somewhere not currently being attacked to find out more about what is happening there.
[ ] Under-Karagril
[ ] Karagril-Karak Drazh Underway
[ ] Karag Zilfin
[ ] Karag Yar
[ ] Karag Rhyn
[ ] Karag Mhonar
[ ] The Sentinels
[ ] Under-Caldera
- This is not a plan vote. There is a two hour voting moratorium.
- Any forces not chosen to lead the battle in the Trenches will be divided between guarding the entrance to the Trenches and supporting whoever is leading it.
- Ranger support would be useful for the battle below (choose 'Under-Caldera' to vote to send them there) but are no longer needed to cut off communications.
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It's not. Orks are taking a long detour through the Badlands, that's why it takes a whole day. Direct path to the east gates is a lot shorter.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Yeah. I've been pushing for "publish the Khazalid dictionary next turn"; it will probably take several turns' worth of AP to learn spoken, assuming we convince Qrech to cooperate, so I want to get Khazalid-Queekish out the door ASAP. It will help the broader Karaz Ankor community starting basically immediately and win Belegar some cred with his fellow Kings.